#Middlebury
“Furlough” (R) – Rookie prison guard Nicole (Tessa Thompson) gets offered a promotion if she can handle sassy, wily prisoner Joan (Melissa Leo) for an emergency furlough to visit her dying mother. A 36-hour quick trip turns into quite the ordeal, with transportation mishaps, a surprise makeover and more. When it’s revealed that Joan has a daughter she has never met, the road trip changes lanes, going from pulling prison chains to tugging on heartstrings. Whoopie Goldberg supports as Nicole’s overbearingly needy mother.
“Avengers: Infinity War” (PG-13) – The entire Marvel Cinematic Universe has come out to save the day in “Avengers: Infinity War,” which stars every significant Marvel superhero of the past decade, including but not limited to, Captain America, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Spider-Man, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Thor, Vision, Black Widow, War Machine, Falcon and Loki. They all come together to thwart Thanos as he attempts to collect the six Infinity Stones in order to exercise control over the universe. Brothers Anthony and Joe Russo helmed this ambitious project and did a surprisingly superb job of interconnecting the breadth of heroes and peripheral personalities. This movie grossed $1 billion in its first 11 days in theaters and is on its way to the $2 billion mark. But even if you’ve already seen it, you still have something to look forward to in the DVD: deleted scenes, a gag reel, audio commentary track and five extended featurettes.
“Shock and Awe” (R) – In the lead-up to the Iraqi War, a group of reporters with Knight Ridder questioned the George W. Bush administration’s rationale for invading Iraq. This is their story. The principal players – editor John Walcott (Rob Reiner) and reporters Jonathan Landay (Woody Harrelson) and Warren Strobel (James Marsden), with an assist from veteran Joe Galloway (Tommy Lee Jones) – appear to be the only news outlet that deviated from the “weapons of mass destruction” excuse given by administration mouthpieces, and we are treated to an inside look into the grind of sourcing and corroboration that is good journalism. In the end, it’s not as sexy as it sounds, and even this incredibly talented group ended up with a film that’s lukewarm at best.
“How to Talk to Girls at Parties” (R) – The 1970s English hard-core punk scene comes alive as a group of youths stumbles upon a gathering of weirdo aliens and mistakes it for a vanguard party. There, Enn (Alex Sharp) meets a mysterious and beautiful teen named Zan (Elle Fanning), who breaks from her group to explore her fascination with Enn, imploring him to “take her to the punk.” It’s different in the way that movies that are meant to be “cool” are different, although I wouldn’t call it a classic cult fave in the making. Nicole Kidman cameos as punk-rock goddess Queen Boadicea.
New TV Releases
“AP Bio” Season 1
“NCIS New Orleans” Season 4
“Blacklist” Season 5
“Mr. Mercedes” Season 1
(c) 2018 King Features Synd. Inc.
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